


Jeremy, Jeremy, and Jeremy?

by TheLadyStrange



Series: Stephen Strange Bingo (Round One) [4]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Doctor Strange (Animated Movie), Doctor Strange (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, I get the chance to use that tag again, Jeremys the Cat, death of a minor character, i really hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 05:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19312021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyStrange/pseuds/TheLadyStrange
Summary: So it was that Stephen got a very small roommate.





	Jeremy, Jeremy, and Jeremy?

**Author's Note:**

> Stephen Strange Bingo N3- Free Space  
> Good Things Happen Bingo B3- Adopting a pet

       After becoming a sorcerer, not much surprised Stephen anymore. 

       Learning that cats really did have nine lives, however, was turning into one of the best surprises Stephen had ever come across. 

       It had all started with the cat that had began following him around Nepal anytime he left Kamar-Taj. It had been a very slim feline with sharp angles and lean muscle. Initially, he had barely interacted with it aside from hellos and goodbyes. It was Mordo that had let him know that there was nothing against pets provided that he took responsibility for all of its needed care.

       So it was that Stephen got a very small roommate.

       Jeremy was a very calm but protective cat. During the day he would walk along with Stephen, but would explore the boundary of any room he was in. At night, however, he always faced the door. Curled up and pressed tightly up against Stephen as he slept, but guarding him all the same. 

       The night Stephen decided to play with the Eye of Agamotto, Jeremy had stopped rubbing up against his boots in favor of wandering through the stacks. And in the wake of the battle against Kaecilious and then Dormammu Stephen had completely forgotten about his tiny companion. Until he returned to the New York Sanctum and found the tiny body crushed by the broken rock of the ancient doorway. Wong had had to drag his weeping form away from the small corpse and force him into bed. It was the next day that Wong portaled him to kamar-Taj and showed him a tiny coffin decorated with carved fish and birds. 

       No one said a word against Stephen carefully placing it among the fallen sorcerers on the pyre. A life had been lost. It did not matter what form it had taken. Stephen returned to New York when he could no longer watch the pyre burn and got himself settled in his new home. 

       Which meant that when he did finally return to Kamar-Taj, he got quite a surprise. The soft echo of a meow had made his pace across the large courtyard slow and then stop as he found its source. The same pale green as his eyes had been, the translucent form of Jeremy meowed at him in greeting. Stephen had fallen to his knees, books falling carelessly to the stone, and stared at the ghostly feline.

       Jeremy seemed unaffected by his new state as he strutted right up to Stephen and pressed their foreheads together. Jeremy’s head was cool against Stephen’s skin and his purr so loud that Stephen thought his bones must be vibrating. Jeremy happily rode in Stephen’s arms to his new home and settled in to be an excellent small poltergeist hunter. 

       At night he still guarded Stephen in his sleep, he was just a cool spot against his back instead of hot. During the day he followed Stephen around, but was no longer confined by the same walls. Occasionally, Stephen would hear a shout of surprise from Wong, but they were becoming farther and farther in between. 

       Then one day Jeremy meowed forlornly and led Stephen out of the Sanctum. They walked far from its hallowed walls before coming upon a sad sight. A tiny kitten lay upon the grimy asphalt of a narrow alley. It’s little body hardly more than skin and bones, its chest still in the icy November air. 

       “Was this your next life?” Stephen's voice was tight and solemn as he asked.

“Mew.” 

       “I’m sorry, Jeremy. _sigh_ Let's take you home.” Stephen removed a layer of his robes to gently wrap the kitten to be carried back.  There, in the small garden hidden behind the Sanctum, Stephen reverently buried another life too soon gone. 

       For several weeks Stephen found himself wandering into that garden, again and again. Looking upon the small mound of dirt and thinking about life and the paths it takes. Sometimes he would sit, a hand resting on the mound and just talk. Telling the kitten of the antics its past life was getting up to and of Stephen’s sorrow that he hadn’t known about it.

       It was three months after the second burial that he heard Wong scream. He and Jeremy jumping up from their spots in the library where they had been resting quietly and rushing down to the kitchen. They found Wong holding a tiny skeleton in one had and glaring at the doorway, apparently having waited for Stephen to arrive.

       “Stephen, what did you do?”

“Me? What could…” The skeletal kitten mewed. It was an eerie sound that made Wong and Stephen’s hair raise on the back of their necks, deep and gravely and undertoned with some primordial noise that couldn’t be defined. Jeremy immediately mewed quite happily in response. It made Stephen look at the skeleton with a new light.

       “Wong, wait one moment.” Wong’s face was priceless but he remained where he was as Stephen darted back to the Sanctum’s garden to find the upturned earth of the kitten’s grave. He turned around as water gathered in his eyes. Flying into the kitchen to take the skeleton in his arms and say hello.

“Hello Jeremy.” The skeletal kitten rattled in response, tickling Stephen into a deep laugh that banished the rest of his tears. Wong was not happy about this new development, but was worn down by Stephen’s quiet admission concerning the cats and how lonely he had been at Kamar-Taj and now the Sanctum. 

       “Well, at least they won’t need a litter box.” Stephen squashed him in a tight hug, the first he had ever given Wong. Wong was stock still during the embrace and looked at Stephen in shock when he pulled away. He blushed as he realized what he had done and leaned down to pick up his new kitten back up and scurry off to his room. He hoped his blush had not been too noticeable to Wong.

       Jeremy the second fit right in. He and Jeremy took turns at night either sleeping with Stephen or wandering through the corridors of the Sanctum. Though sometimes it seemed that they went out into the city. During the day, Jeremy Two was a nice weight on Stephen’s lap and Jeremy One a soft glow making the pages easier to read. Even Wong began to interact with the two. One time Stephen caught Wong and Jeremy Two playing fetch with one of Jeremy’s ribs. Wong however denied it, stating that Jeremy had just come up to him to get it replaced.

       Stephen knew better though, he had watched them from the astral plane before, and merely smiled at Wong. Life settled again into a simple routine broken up by Stephen’s various forays into other dimensions as he grew into his new role as Sorcerer Supreme. Often times he would return hurting or bleeding and found solace in the Jeremys. It was surprisingly soothing to cuddle with a skeleton and a ghost. 

       Not to mention the absolutely hilarious expressions they earned from the few guests he had. Peter in particular had been funny as the poor boy had jumped out of his skin and right onto the ceiling when Jeremy Two had soundlessly walked up behind him to meow a greeting. Wong couldn’t even be mad about the footprints on the ceiling after being there in person to see the spectacle. 

       Life was good.

       The Jeremys were enjoying their afterlives and Stephen was getting hurt less and less as his power and control grew. The downside was Wong had begun to spend more and more time at Kamar-Taj, since Stephen no longer needed a helping hand in the day to day. It made the Sanctum seem empty being the only living being in the whole of the large building.

       That spring, the universe decided to gift Stephen with someone to share the sanctum with him. That spring the Jeremys yowled until Stephen followed them out the door and down the street to an animal shelter. There they showed him a healthy cat with long bushy brown fur and a pair of highly familiar green eyes.

       “We meet again, Jeremy.” Stephen's grin ached, but he could not stop after finding the cat alive again at last.

       Stephen immediately adopted the new life of his friend and took him home. From that day forth Stephen had a warm weight upon his lap that would warm his aching hands all winter long. And he had a friend to share meals with at the table, Wong’s scandalized sputtering be damned.


End file.
